Snyder pressures the gang into selling bars of chocolate to raise funds for the school marching band. Meanwhile, the Mayor and Mr Trick are planning to give tribute to a demon. The sweets are a raging success, and soon Giles and Joyce, along with the rest of the adult population of Sunnydale, are chowing them down like fat pigs at a gluttony contest. Soon after, the gang notices that the adults are suspiciously frisky, and we discover Ethan Rayne is back in town. It turns out that the candy is cursed, bringing on teenage exuberance, and the total lack of responsibility that entails. Joyce is hit hard, and spends the time in Giles' arms, while he has reverted to the Ripper of old. Willow and Xander find themselves drawn to each other, but resist. Buffy and the gang discover the source is a factory downtown, and that the tribute is a bunch of infants for a baby-eating sewer-dwelling demon called Larconis (the candy was cursed to distract the adults). Buffy finds the demon in the nick of time, and burns it to death with a handy gas main.  Short synopsis by Bruce.

Two time-honored concepts are given new life in the vital world
of Buffy. We've got a "food affects people's brains"
storyline again, a variation on the time-honored "poison
food" idea that's been around for centuries (like "Snow
White" for instance), and then a twist on the "people
regress to childhood" theme that has also been around seemingly
forever. Giles says "Larconis" means "glutton."

Cordelia: "Actually, I'm looking forward to it. I do well on standardized tests. (Everyone gives her a look) What? I can't have layers?"

Xander, making guilty conversation while playing footsie
with Willow: "The band! Yeah. They're great. They march."Willow: "Like an army. Except... with music
instead of bullets, and... usually no one dies."

Willow's attempt to explain the adults' behavior: "Maybe
there's a reunion in town, or a Billy Joel tour or something."

"It's like being in the Real World house... only
real." The Real World is a series on MTV in
which a group of strangers are selected to live in a house and
have their real, unscripted lives videotaped (although it has
been revealed that many of the situations are set up). There
have been eight seasons, each taking place in a different city
(New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Miami, Boston, Seattle, and Honolulu).

"You weren't visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past,
by any chance?" The Ghost of Christmas Past was one
of three spirits (the other two being the Ghost of Christmas
Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) who visited the
miserly Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' 1843 short novel
"A Christmas Carol," teaching him the true meaning
of Christmas and turning his nasty and money-hoarding personality
into generosity and compassion.

"I'm sure we love the idea of going all Willy Loman,
but we're not in the band." Willy Loman was the title
character of Arthur Miller's 1949 Pulitzer Prize-winning play

Death of a Salesman, which tells of how salesman Willy
Loman must struggle against his own failures and the pressures
exerted on him by his family and by society.

"Do you like Seals & Crofts?" Seals &
Crofts was a popular soft-rock duo consisting of Jimmy Seals
and Dash Crofts, who had a string of top-ten hits from 1972 to
1976, including "Summer Breeze" and "We May Never
Pass This Way (Again)."

"Let's do the Time Warp again." This is a
line from the chorus of the song "The Time Warp" from
the comedy-horror-musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
This is something of an in-joke, as Anthony Stewart Head played
Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, the stage musical that led to RHPS.

"Just the last name, like... Barbarino." Vinnie
Barbarino was the stereotypically cool character played by John
Travolta from 1975 to 1979 on the ABC sitcom Welcome Back,
Kotter.

"Louie Louie," sung by the drunken adults on stage
at the Bronze, was originally made big by a band called the Kingsmen
in the early 1960's, has been covered countless times since,
and had its popularity renewed by its presence on the soundtrack
of the hit 1978 movie Animal House.

"Very Juice Newton" Judy Kay "Juice"
Newton was a country singer whose fusion of country with folk,
rock, and pop landed her a pair of enormous crossover hits, "Angel
of the Morning" and "Queen of Hearts," both from
her 1981 albums Juice.

The exercise Angel is doing in the courtyard of the mansion
when Buffy comes to see him is T'ai Chi Ch'uan, a Chinese martial
art which is also used as a form of Taoist yoga. Brian feels
compelled to mention this because he's been studying T'ai Chi
for several weeks (at the time of this episode's first airing),
but hasn't yet gotten to the point in the sequence that Angel
was doing.

The music of Oz's band, Dingoes Ate My Baby, is provided by the band Four Star Mary. Dingoes/FSM are playing this song on stage at the Bronze when Willow and Buffy show up to find all the adults acting like kids.

This episode marked the writing debut of
new executive story editor Jane Espenson, and I must praise her
to the heavens. This episode was hitting on all cylinders. In
what I thought would be a goofy throwaway episode in the vein
of "Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered"
we instead got the return of a highly entertaining villain (Ethan),
a plot that furthered the extremely creepy mayor storyline, and
above all a hell of a lot of fun. The dialogue was sharper than
it's been all season, with the excellent one-liners seamlessly
integrated into the conversations and storyline. The embryonic
and problematic passion between Willow and Xander was not forgotten,
but was instead worked into the story effectively. And we got
marvelous performances out of Anthony Stewart Head, Kristine
Sutherland, and SMG, who is imbuing the character of Buffy with
a strength that makes her a better and more appealing character
than ever before. Robin Sachs was sheer delight, making me once
again yearn for yet another return of the wonderfully weaselly
Ethan Rayne. Finally, it was the little things that put this
episode over, details like the mailman reading everyone's mail
in the park, the way Buffy's training exercise with Giles comes
into play in finding Ethan at the factory, Joyce coming up with
a pair of handcuffs, and the mayor calling about sewer maintenance.
All the elements combined to create an immensely entertaining
whole that ranks among the best episodes of the series to date. (10/10)

Will:

I was thoroughly entertained. I felt
like I was watching a really good cheesy 80's movie. Giles and
Joyce acting like teenagers reminded me of movie moments from
The Outsiders or My Bodyguard. Granted, those movies
were sadly lacking vampires. Just when I think the writers are
running out of storylines, they go and surprise me. On the topic
of Xander and Willow... it is rather fun to watch, but I smell
trouble in the near future. The "footsie" scene was
priceless, and I am finding myself very happy that Joss and company
decided to have them finally have smoochies. As I mentioned before,
the concept for this episode was very cute, and I found myself
glued to the television. Giles, Joyce, and Principal Snyder were
all great. I nearly lost it when Joyce said "Screw you!"
to Buffy. The only flaw I found in this episode concerns Angel.
It seems like his mental and emotional recovery are a bit too
rapid. In addition, when did he learn martial arts? On one final
note, the relationship between Mr. Trick and the mayor is very
cool. I think the mayor is... well... neat. Two thumbs up. (9/10)